Plucky Duck
Plucky Duck is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series, Tiny Toon Adventures. He is arguably the third main character on the show after Buster and Babs Bunny. Plucky is voiced by Joe Alaskey (who also voices Daffy Duck in future appearances). Biography Plucky is a young, green male duck, who wears a white tank top. He attends Acme Looniversity and lives in Acme Acres. Plucky's mentor and favorite teacher is Daffy Duck and he resembles his egotistical hero in many ways. One such similarity Plucky has with Daffy is the classic gag from the "Hunter Trilogy." In the trilogy, Daffy's bill keeps coming off; in Tiny Toon Adventures, Plucky's bill keeps coming off as a running gag in many episodes. Also, like Daffy Duck, Plucky is capable of flying with his wings, but very rarely does so. Plucky lives with his parents in a small wooden home in the middle of a swamp near Acme Looniversity. He has many relatives and neighbors, including a pair of female ducks named Gladys and Gracie, alligators and other animals that live in or near the swamp. Personality Plucky is a hyper-active and egocentric young duck. He's lovable due to his innate wackiness and his tragic and comic flaws. Plucky is driven by blind ambition. He has big dreams of wealth, fame and power, but he's so desperate to get them that he always falls victim to his own wild schemes. Plucky has the uncensored mind of a child; he's all selfishness and irrational imagination. Plucky always thinks that he knows best or thinks that he is the best. He always has an angle; always has a scheme to dodge work or responsibility. He rarely studies and finishes his homework five minutes before the bell, if at all. He is easily frustrated and quick to give up. He can be paranoid, thinking everybody's out to get him. He's insanely jealous, both of Buster's coolness and of Monty's bank account. Plucky thinks he's just as smart as Buster, or even smarter, but while Buster wins out in every situation, Plucky inevitably screws up. However, Plucky never gives up because he is devoid of any objective self-knowledge. He's a smorgasbord of emotions, all of them beyond his control. He is jealous, excitable, miserable, vengeful...all in a kaleidoscopic way, without a beat between conflicting emotions. Plucky envisions himself as a crusader for what's good; that is, what's good for Plucky Duck. He wants to be a star and would do anything to take over Buster's hosting chores. He often stars in movie and television parodies when he's not acting as the "Toxic Revenger" or cajoling his pal, Hamton, into some lame-brained scheme. Plucky imagines himself to be brilliantly adept at everything, yet he constantly overestimates his own abilities and falls flat on his bill. Whenever Plucky is attacked or in an explosion, his beak is rearranged on his head. A strong sneeze can also send his beak flying. Feathers fly when he's furious and when his temper explodes, he breaks into wild "quacking fits." Plucky is a fast talker, but the only character he can con is the often gullible Hamton. Buster is wise to Plucky, but will sometimes play along just to turn the tables. Invariably, Plucky ends up as the victim of his own con. Plucky often engages in various schemes with the goal of either personal glory or satisfying some personal whim. These schemes range from inventing a time machine, to delay doing his own homework and to traveling to Hollywood, California in an ill-fated attempt at selling his life story as a movie. His schemes often fail because his ego gets in the way or because a guilty conscience gets the better of him (as is the case when he attempts to cheat on a test and subsequently goes insane as he broods over the morality of his actions). Babs once aptly describes him as "the silly green duck with an ego the size of Cleveland." Similar to Daffy's relationship with Bugs Bunny, Plucky also sometimes found himself at odds with the two main stars of Tiny Toon Adventures, Buster Bunny and Babs Bunny, though the three managed to remain friends (the rabbits are generally indifferent to Plucky's egotism when not using it to their advantage) and Plucky occasionally displays a sense of loyalty to them. Ironically, even though Plucky gripes about how he deserves to have as much or more air-time on the show than Buster and Babs, a massive chunk of the series' episodes usually revolve around him in some manner. Plucky's best friend is Hamton J. Pig, a mild-mannered pig and Plucky's opposite, much as Porky Pig is the opposite of Daffy. Plucky often takes advantage of Hamton. Plucky's romantic interest is Shirley the Loon. Despite his big ego, Plucky has a lot of good will and the little guy's safety in mind. In the short, "Pluck O' The Irish" from the episode, "Viewer Mail Day", he was determined to save Hamton from being turned to stone by The Screaming Banshee and in the short, "My Brilliant Revenge!" from the episode, "Fox Trot", he apologized to Hamton for making him miss his favorite show, Swine Search. He has also bested Montana Max three times as The Toxic Revenger, has helped Buster and Babs thwart Monty in "Citizen Max", and in "The Acme Bowl", he has helped Acme Looniversity win the football game against Perfecto Prep by serving as a double agent. He has also shown that he does know when his ego goes too far in "A Quack in the Quarks". Some episodes feature Plucky, a comic book enthusiast, parodying various heroic characters, much like Daffy's roles of Duck Dodgers and The Scarlet Pumpernickel. These include The Toxic Revenger (See below), James T. Duck (a parody of Captain Kirk in Star Trek), Bat-Duck (a parody of Batman, with Hamton in Robin's red-and-green outfit as "Decoy, the Pig Hostage") and Pluck Hyerdahl of the Kon-Ducki (in a parody of Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki). End Tag Plucky occasionally signs off with the Romeo and Juliet line, "Parting is such sweet sorrow!" Quotes *"Give me a break!" *"Why me?" *"Just my luck!" *"Sidekick, no way! I am no sidekick! Hamton's a sidekick type; he has all the ear marks of a sidekick!" *"I'd say that this is another example of species stereotype and I'd like a rebuttal!" (what Buster thinks Plucky's opinion might be on Ruffee's animal song) Trivia *Of interesting note, in the credits to the episode featuring Elmyra's version of The Name Game the line appears, "Name inadvertently left out of The Name Game: Plucky." Of course, Plucky is intentionally left out because if the song is sung with his name, it includes an expletive. *According to Comics Scene #17, Plucky was originally going to be named either "Duck Amuck" (after the 1953 Daffy Duck cartoon of the same name) or "Mucky Duck".